The present invention generally relates to the archiving and sharing of multimedia data and more particularly relates to method and apparatus that enables multi-format content to be recorded on, interrelated with, and reproduced from a single removable storage medium.
Even the most technically naïve consumer has been affected by and most likely has made the switch from analog media to digital media for preservation of music. Relative sales volumes of vinyl records and cassette tapes to music compact disks (CDs) clearly show the consumer's preference for digital recorded audio. While aficionados may offer a spirited defense of vinyl records and cassette tapes, the permanence, durability, capacity, and technical performance of digital recordings have captured the market. Compact disk players, the necessary audio component for reproducing the recorded audio content, are now ubiquitous and inexpensive.
A similar revolution appears to be occurring in the reproduction of video content. Digital storage of video content, movies and the like, is moving from the accepted analog videotape standard to a digital storage standard. Usually, this digital storage is on a CD medium, although high-end consumer video recording is being done using a digital videotape medium. At this time, a plurality of digital video standards exists, but the most widely accepted standards can be categorized into DVD standards (Digital Versatile Disk, a listing of the applicable specifications may be found at www.licensing.philips.com/dvdsystems/dvdspecs.html) and Video CD (VCD) standards (generally referred to as the “White Book” and titled Video CD Specification Version 2.0, Philips Consumer Electronics B. V., April 1995) and variations and updates of these standards (for example, Super Video CD). While players for the higher resolution DVD standard CDs can easily be designed to play VCD standard CDs (because the MPEG-2 standard data compression used by DVD also encompasses the MPEG-1 standard data compression used by VCD), the reverse is not easily accomplished and therefore is not done for economic reasons. JVC, Philips, Sony, and Matsushita introduced VCD in 1993—long before DVD was developed. VCD supports 74 minutes of VHS-quality audio and video (to an MPEG-1 standard) on a readily available CD medium. Video CD never caught on in the US due to the large installed base of VHS video cassette recorders and no overwhelming technical quality improvement. The DVD standard, however, is apparently overcoming this resistance due to significant advancements in audio and video quality, availability of a significant number of movie titles, and new functionality such as multiple camera angles. Nevertheless, Video CD dominates the Asian market, where VCD movies and players are as common as VHS tapes and players in the US. Because of the Asian market support for VCD (and because it is a relatively simple and inexpensive feature to add, due to DVD's use of MPEG-2 compression technology, which is a superset of VCD's MPEG-1 technology), most of the DVD players available in the US and worldwide markets support VCD as well as DVD. It should also not be ignored that VCD standard CDs are currently easier and less expensive to produce than DVD standard CDs.
Mass market still image photography is at the entrance to the digital age. Of course, professional photography has been using digital storage and image enhancement for some time, but the digital capture and storage of images for consumers is a relatively new development. Consumer digital cameras are becoming common in the marketplace and consumers are beginning to acquire the cameras in rapidly increasing numbers. It is expected that digital cameras will overtake conventional film cameras based on the silver-halide, chemical, process. Digital cameras typically store the captured images in computer files on one of various digital storage media selected by the camera manufacturer and the user subsequently downloads the stored images to a computer, printer, or other external device for conversion to human perceptible form. Often a silver-halide print is digitized or the original digital camera image is re-stored on a CD using a still image specification like the professional “PhotoCD”, a Kodak, Inc. proprietary technology, or “PictureCD”, employing the more familiar JPEG standard, based upon computer CD ROM storage technology. Obviously, the still images stored on a CD using the PictureCD standard are readable by a computer, but they are not generally readable by a conventional VCD player or a conventional DVD player.
Consumers do not need to be familiar with computer technology to enjoy the content of digital format movies and digital format music. Digitally recorded movies and digitally recorded music are accessible and enjoyable without any computer involvement. Similarly a consumer today can buy a film camera or a video camcorder (even a digital video camcorder) and happily use it without any knowledge of computers. The film can be processed and printed by any number of photo processors, and the camcorder can be plugged into the TV at any time to view the family videos.
In contrast to these familiar technologies, the purchaser of a digital still camera must have access to a computer (or a properly equipped computer printer), significant experience in using it (installing and updating digital camera software is no easy matter), and available time to spend at the keyboard to produce hardcopy prints of acceptable quality. The consumer photography industry is attempting to address this problem by providing digital camera kiosks in retail locations that will accept and print digital photos. Unfortunately, this solution only recovers parity with the current silver-halide film development process. Furthermore, the consumer must still resort to a computer to access or share their digital photos in the many ways enabled by digital technology.
In review, then, there are multiple standards available for the digital recording of audio, video, and still images and there are multiple standards of placing the digital recordings on a removable storage medium such as a CD. How can one simply perform these operations? More importantly, how can a non-technophile aggregate and coordinate audio, video, and still images into an easy to produce removable storage medium and then share the production with another non-technophile having a generally available consumer electronics player?